The owner of The River Pizza & Subs in Boulder is suing the city of Boulder, Mayor Rusty Giulio and Rose Perna, the city’s accounting assistant, over allegations that a dispute over city code enforcement involving business licenses ballooned into threats, intimidation and defamation from Giulio and Perna. The city—and Giulio and Perna—deny the allegations.
A scheduling conference to determine dates and deadlines for future steps in the lawsuit was set for 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in Jefferson County Fifth District Court. The conference was set to be held via video call.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 12, 2021, stems from an incident on July 1, 2021, when Greg Hughes, the owner of The River restaurant, was having carpet delivered to a house he owns across Main Street from the restaurant. While Hughes was in Helena, according to the lawsuit, workers from Butte were delivering carpet to the house, located at 108 S. Main St., around 3:15 p.m. While the workers were making the delivery, the suit alleged, Perna entered the home and told the delivery workers that they couldn’t work in Boulder without a city business license, and she then told the workers to leave.
An answer to the lawsuit filed jointly by Giulio and Perna on Jan. 7 agreed that Perna entered the home to ask the workers about a business license and that she “discussed the requirement for businesses operating in the city of Boulder to have a business license.” The answer denied that Perna was “loud or threatening,” as the lawsuit alleged.
All of the parties agreed that Perna then left the house, after which, according to Hughes’ lawsuit, the delivery workers called him and informed him of Perna’s actions, and he returned to Boulder. The parties agreed that Hughes went to Boulder City Hall later that day and engaged with Perna. Hughes’ lawsuit stated that he “spoke with Perna,” and that “Perna explained she had authority to enter Hughes’ residence due to her position with the city. Hughes disagreed and ended the conversation.” Giulio and Perna’s answer to the suit disputed the nature of the interaction, stating that the term “spoke” did not accurately reflect “the tenor of that conversation.” The interaction, the parties noted, took place after business hours.
The parties agreed that Hughes then contacted Giulio to arrange an in-person meeting, and that a meeting occurred later that day.
Hughes’ lawsuit alleged that Giulio pointed at him and “threatened Hughes to apologize to Perna,” before reiterating that Perna had authority to enter the house and inquire about the a business license. Giulio, in his answer to the suit with Perna, denied threatening Hughes. Hughes also alleged that Giulio threatened to cite him over a newly constructed fence at the house that Giulio said required a permit, but that Hughes had previously consulted City Clerk Ellen Harne and determined that the fence did not require a permit. In his answer, Giulio denied discussing the fence during the interaction. The answer wholly denied that Giulio threatened Hughes, but it said that “Rusty [Giulio] discussed with Hughes that he could be cited if he threatened or intimidated city staff.”
The next day—July 2—Hughes again went to City Hall, according to the lawsuit, this time to renew a business license and pay a water bill. The lawsuit stated that Perna was polite and “nothing was mentioned about the previous day’s interactions.” Perna and Giulio’s answer agreed that she was polite but charged that “Rose [Perna] specifically mentioned Hughes’ threatening conduct.”
Hughes’ lawsuit stated that he learned later that day “that Perna had told people she feared for her life and her family’s safety based on her interactions with, and threats from, Hughes, and that she was locking the door to City Hall,” and that “Perna filed a police report falsely stating that Hughes had threatened her.”
Perna and Giulio’s answer agreed that she filed a police report but stated that “Rose made a truthful report of Hughes’s conduct.”
The Monitor requested a copy of the police report from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 27. Sheriff’s Office record requests are routed through the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office, which had not replied to the request by press time on Tuesday.
The lawsuit further alleged that “Giulio and other employees of the city of Boulder repeatedly told individuals in Boulder that Hughes had threatened Perna, causing her to be in fear”—an allegation that Giulio and Perna’s answer denied.
Hughes alleged in his lawsuit that, sometime around Nov. 1, Giulio threatened an employee of The River who had entered Giulio’s Elkhorn Cafe by telling the person that he “was either with Giulio or against him,” and that “Giulio also threatened that he was not only the mayor, but the chief of police; implying that he could have the employee arrested.” Giulio, in the answer to the suit, denied all of the allegations.
The lawsuit alleged that Giulio, at unspecified times, said that Hughes was a pedophile and stated that Hughes was not good for Boulder and should leave, and that Giulio threatened to “shut down” The River. Giulio and Perna’s answer to the lawsuit denied all of those allegations.
Hughes, in his lawsuit, claimed that Perna trespassed against him, violated his constitutional right against unlawful search and seizure, and defamed him; that Giulio intimidated him, defamed him and interfered with his business; and that the city of Boulder violated his right against unlawful search and seizure when Perna entered his property. The city of Boulder, Giulio and Perna denied each of the claims in their answers to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit called for a jury trial wherein Hughes would seek actual and punitive damages, legal fees and possible injunctive relief.
In separate phone calls on Tuesday, Perna; Murry Warhank, the attorney representing Giulio and Perna; Sarah Mazanec the attorney representing Boulder; and Hughes all declined to comment on the lawsuit. The Monitor was unable to reach Giulio and Robert Farris-Olsen, the attorney representing Hughes, by press time on Tuesday.
In a phone call with The Monitor on July 19, 2021, Giulio characterized the dispute over Perna’s code enforcement as “a misunderstanding,” but reiterated that “If you’re conducting commerce in the city limits, our ordinance says you have to have a permit.”
“We had an employee that probably did something she shouldn’t, and I talked to her about it,” Giulio said, adding that Perna was on her lunch break when she entered the house. “One of our employees stuck their head in and said something, and they shouldn’t have.”
Although, as Hughes’ lawsuit notes, Perna is not a law enforcement officer, contracted Boulder City Attorney Ed Guza said in a July 19 phone call that “I know of no requirement of the enforcement of our code based on the employment of a code-enforcement officer,” and that “My understanding is it’s not exclusively the role of a code enforcer. It’s a position that the city has that can be fulfilled by others instead.”
Harne said in a phone call on July 19 that Boulder Code of Ordinances Chapter 5, Section 2—which is now Title XI, Chapter 110—is the only portion of city ordinance she was aware of that governed city requirements for business licenses.
The ordinance states that “It shall be unlawful for any persons, firms or corporations to engage in the businesses, occupations, industries, trades and professions, hereinafter named, within the corporate limits of the city, without first having obtained a license so to do,” and it continues that “Unless otherwise provided, every retailer or renter providing any service or selling any product with intent to make a profit wherein the service or entire sales transaction occurs within the corporate limits of city shall pay a license fee of $35 per year for each business owned or operated.”
City code does not specifically address whether businesses outside of Boulder must hold a valid city business license for their workers to deliver items to destinations within Boulder. The code does not specify how the city should enforce business license requirements.
